The present invention involves an IC package similar IDE interface solid state disk module and optimized pin design, especially, a data storage design which has a link for the IDE data storage interface and is suitable to various light type and portable computers and industrial computer systems where requirement on vibration resistance is needed.
Generally, a conventional hard disk stores data by means of the magnetic technique in which data storage or read is performed through a rotating magnetic head in high speed driven by a motor. The capacity of hard disk has been increased from dozens of MB (106) of earlier model to several GB (109), even to more than ten GB of modem model the access speed has increased from dozens of KB of earlier model to several MB of modem model, with the rapid development, the control becomes more precise, the rotating speed of motor becomes much higher, the running magnetic head is more sensitive to vibration. For portable or industrial computer systems it is hard to avoid vibration, therefore, if a conventional hard disk is used in such a system, its service life will shortened considerably, in addition, there will be risks to lose stored data in it.
In order to solve the problem on vibration, various mechanisms for vibration improvement were designed for weakening the effect to the hard disk, or an other system was designed to copy data which are expected to be stored to other hard disk in order to reduce the risks on damage of hard disk due to vibration, however, these measures could not avoid completely the risks to lose stored data due to vibration.
With development of the semiconductor technique, various electronic memories such as DRAM, SRAM and so on were developed, meanwhile, the capacity of a single memory increases, the cost reduces, and the operation speed is getting higher and higher, so, designers uses DRAM or SRAM plus a back up battery to substitute a hard disk in order to avoid data losing due to vibration; however, in such a design there is still a risk, e.g. when the main battery runs out and is not replaced with a new one in time, using power from the back up battery continuously will cause data losing, furthermore, such a design will result in higher cost and complexity of the system.
Coming out of a flash memory which is of a memory able to store data without use of electric power solves the problem on vibration for a conventional hard disk and the problem on back up battery necessary for DRAM or SRAM. Therefore, a new memory which is called solid state disk is emerged by substitution of the flash memory for DRAM or SRAM, such a solid state disk has a same size as that of a conventional hard disk, and is fixed on the framework by screws.
Development of computer products show the tendency to small size and light weight, so the size of such a solid state disk is sill too large, besides it is necessary to screwed on the framework, therefore, a memory element which has function of the solid state memory and dimensions of an IC package becomes more necessary.
And, at present, there are two type of memory interfaces, SCSI and IDE, the latter is more popular to use, almost more than 80% of computers adopt IDE interface, the IDE has 40 pins, in addition of power supply and master/stave mode selection, the total number of pins is about 44; according to the computer specifications, a computer system uses actually 29 pins, in addition of pins for supply and master/stave mode selection, has 32 pins used, therefore, less pins to be used may reduce the PCB area as well as the cost.
In order to overcome the shortcomings occurred in the conventional hard disk and the solid state disk using DRAM or SRAM plus a back up battery, the inventor develops an ingenious solid state disk module and optimized pin design which provides a novelist appearance for a memory element by his long term accumulated experience in that field, the optimized pin design makes users and designers to eliminate wormiest about vibration, power shortage and large dimensions so that it will be possible to offer various small, portable computers and industrial computer systems with a novelist apparatus which is able to solve the problem on the memory element that designers worried about.
According to the above mentioned , the present solid state disk module adopts a connection type of dual-in-line package which may be soldered directly on a PCB of the system and is different from the mechanical structure of a conventional hard disk, therefore, it features its high vibration resistance, small dimensions and no fastening parts, so it is very suitable to various small, portable computer systems or industrial computer systems where both data storage and vibration resistance are needed.
In order to describe in detail objects, characteristics and functions of the present invention, an example of embodiment of the present invention and figures are provided as follows.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of internal structure of solid state disk module;
FIG. 2 is a diagram of pin definitions of solid state disk module;
FIG. 3 A,B are schematic cross reference diagrams of pins, for solid state disk and IDE interface;
FIG. 4 is a schematic view of internal PCB set of solid state disk module;